The Dominican University men's soccer team secured at least a share of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) regular season title on Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 win over the Edgewood College Eagles at West Campus Field to move to 9-0-0 in league play and 12-2-2 overall.
 
Knowing what was on the line, the Stars started the match in flurry, forcing Edgewood's Ethan Schneider to make the first of his five first-half saves just 12 seconds into the match when Isaac Perez collected a loose ball and streaked down the middle to the top of the 18-yard box before ripping a low shot that Schneider just got a hand on diving to his right.  Twenty seconds later, Perez earned the Stars their first corner of the match when his service from the corner was blocked over the endline.
 
On the ensuing corner, Zack Venzon played short to Frankie Saiz who served to the back post where Alex Rohder headed it home.  The tally came just 62 seconds after the opening kickoff on Dominican's third shot of the match.
 
"We had one of our best starts of the year today and scored a nice, early, set-piece goal," said Erick Baumann following the match. "Unfortunately, we then took our foot off the gas pedal and didn't make things easy on ourselves.  We needed to continue to play with the focus and intensity we started the game with."
 
Despite eight more first half shots, including three more shots on goal, Dominican could not find the back of the goal until the 56^th minute when Jonathan Arzeta slipped to Nestor Ascencio, sending the forward endline where he slid a dangerous pass in front of the goal that was an Edgewood defender tried to clear but it went right to Venzon at the top of the box who blasted a shot inside the near post to make it 2-0 Dominican.
 
The Stars added an insurance goal in the 85^th minute when Gabriel Moreno took a wicked shot that knuckled back to the near post and just under the crossbar from 21 yards out for his second goal of the season.
 
Going eleven men deep into the bench, Dominican outshot the Eagles 20-7, putting 12 shots on frame while Edgewood managed just two shots on goal both saved by the Stars' Gabriel Gongora who played 81 minutes to lower his goals against average to 0.59 on the season.
 
"This is the second straight game that we got good minutes from our bench," said Baumann. "I'm happy for the guys that we have claimed at least a share of the conference championship.  They have been committed and have worked hard to get to this point."
 
Dominican will look to earn the NACC crown outright on Wednesday when they travel to Lisle to take on the Benedictine University Eagles under the lights at the Sports Complex in Lisle.  Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Dominican can clinch the top spot in the 2016 NACC Men's Soccer Tournament with a win or a tie.